You can't say that you're pro-life and pro-RH

I was in Manila with my kuya Choy Torralba for the whole day last Tuesday for a meeting with my long time friend, showbiz legend Mother Lily Monteverde, whom I haven’t seen in the last 3 years. Mother was so excited to see me; she stopped all her meetings for the evening so we could have dinner together. So we had dinner in Gloria Maris Shabu-Shabu Restaurant in Greenhills with my kumadre Mrs. Angie Pineda of Star Cinema and her son, my godson Dr. Michael “Mic-Mic” Pineda.

Later in the evening, the other close friends of Mother Lily dropped by for a chat. GMA-7’s Kuya Germs, manager/promoter Girlie Rodis and Annabelle Rama came. Our table grew bigger. Dinner lasted from 7pm to almost 11pm. For many years, this was my life in showbiz. We showed the movies of Regal Films back in those days when Film Piracy wasn’t rampant. Back then, whenever showbiz folks dine, table topic was usually showbiz. How time has changed. Topic last Tuesday was more on politics than showbiz! This shows that politics and show business has almost merged as one industry.

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I’ve read that a group of Catholics have come out expressing their support for the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. This was announced by Dr. Edelina de la Paz, national coordinator of the Catholics for RH Movement. She said, “We remain faithful to the Catholic Church, but we strongly disagree with the bishop’s stance on family planning and reproductive health.” She further claimed that her nationwide group was “Pro-Life.” How can she say they are faithful?

This group sends confusing signals to other Catholics out there when they claim to be “Pro-life.” How can they be pro-life when they support a bill that would allow people to use abortifacient drugs that kill the life of innocents? Dr. de la Paz doesn’t even know that the pro-life stand of the bishops or priests is not their own opinion; rather it is the teachings of the Catholic church handed down from generation to generation. You cannot say you’re pro-life and pro-RH bill!

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Just when we thought that we’ve passed those pesky two-hour rotating brownouts, it comes back with a vengeance, making things difficult especially for businesses in Cebu. Unfortunately, we just have to suffer this inconvenience. How we wish we could blame it on something else. But let’s take comfort in the fact that Cebu is doing far better than the power situation in Mindanao, which is also suffering heavily from rotational brownouts, despite the fact that their hydro power plants are operating in full capacity.

The ripple effect of having no power means Cebu also suffers from a serious lack of water, because our water supply has to be pumped from our underground wells. The key word here is conservation. If we conserve electricity, then we might not experience brownouts and we won’t have water problems. But what are we doing to ensure that our people get serious in water or power conservation? In California, where it doesn’t rain, if anyone is caught washing their car using a water hose, they are fined and it’s your neighbors who will report you.

One new business that recently sprouted is the car wash business. But those wash-your-car-boys are all using high-pressure hoses. Precious water is drained and not saved. Perhaps this is something for our bright boys to look into, allowing cars to be cleaned with pressure hoses for as long as the dirty water is collected, cleaned and recycled. This is a job for Filipino ingenuity.

I got a lot of positive comments on the article we wrote about Supermarkets going into the act of stopping the use of plastic bags that clog our esteros, rivers and our drainage systems. My readers were enlightened with our idea that if we completely stop the use of plastic bags, we could develop a livelihood project of poor communities making buri or woven bags which we used in the days when plastic bags were not yet available.

This is a project that hit so many birds with one stone. First, when we stop using plastic bags, we clean up our environment. Soon, our esteros, drainage and creeks would no longer be clogged and when the strong rains come, we would experience fewer flash floods. Second, it gives jobs to communities that produce bags that would replace plastic bags. This means jobs for the kanto boys who have nothing better to do. So now the problem is, when do we completely stop using plastic bags so this project can be implemented immediately? Remember, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” If we don’t use plastic bags, we’ll find ways to replace it.